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User blog:TheRealG3rMan/Muv Luv Strategy Game Map
Background So I've been dying for a proper strategy game for Muv-Luv since I played Faraway Dawn, specifically either a TBS (Turn-based strategy) with some kind of unit building mechanics (a la Advance Wars) OR something like a Grand Strategy game where you control an entire nation (a la Total War or Civilizations). The few fan games that exist are focused on the TSF combat aspect, which is cool, but not really what I'm interested in. And I figure Age definitely isn't going to make their own, so I figured I would have to do it myself. The past month or so has had me throwing the idea around to try and figure out what would be the most effective and the most streamlined engine for me to use, and at the same time, whether I could find an appropriate game to mod or build it from the ground up. I still haven't really found the best answer for my original idea apart from creating it myself, which would take too long and with zero profit to me (not monetary, just time). So, I decided that I would give up some complexity to speed up development and I was able to discover the TripleA board game engine which is designed to recreate games like Axis & Allies and Risk but are easy to reskin (although I'm still learning how to implement new features, if at all). If you have any input feel free to chime in, even if it's just whether or not you would play something like this. (It can be played Human vs Human or Human vs AI, as supported by the TripleA engine) Map & Scenario I've uploaded my current idea for the map for The Day After scenario, which I feel like will be a good scenario to start with since there aren't many factions, and it's less world space to have to define and work with. Ideally, it will be a four player match with the US and Japan allied and at war with Canada and France. I'm also thinking about adding a fifth BETA player that appears out in the southern salt plains and threatens Hawaii. I kind of like the idea of the TDA scenario because a vast majority of the land will be worth almost nothing to own, may or may not be crossable (due to environmental hazards like zero atmosphere), and will overall just be really focused on conserving your large starting forces and figuring out what you want to protect and where you have to sacrifice since every faction is going to have limited manufacturing capacity. Japan is probably going to have the safest capital in Hawaii (at least until the BETA move), but they are out in the middle of nowhere and can't easily reinforce their armies in Seattle. The US is going to have most of their industry located on the West coast, south of Seattle, and in parts of unsubmerged Alaska. They will technically own some East coast territories like Maryland, but there will be zero value in them given they are surrounded by zero atmosphere land. In comparison to Japan, the US territories are close together and are larger overall, but their military might is scattered along the border with Canada and is in need of serious reorganization. Both Canada and France are going to have it the worst in the long term because their territories have almost no manufacturing capacity (to replicate the famine going on in TDA), but they will have the advantage of being the most close knit with their territories and having the greatest density of military forces along the border. Unfortunately, to really gain any territory they are going to have to capture useless salt plain territories and push West for more production capacity, but that will lead them straight to where the US and Japan is the strongest. For now I'm imagining to keep things simple I will maintain just the single type of resource normally used by the other games called PU = (Production Unit), although if I figure out custom resources I might switch them to food, fuel, metals etc. Factions *United States of America *Empire of Japan *Sixth French Republic *Canada *BETA (Normally I would probably have BETA controlled by AI, but technically they can be played by a human) **The main thing that makes me optimistic of implementing BETA is that games have been created with zombie factions, which are in theory going to play similarly to the BETA. Units This is the fun and yet also disappointing part of the scenario. Cool thing is that each faction can have its own unit pool for better immersion; crappy thing is is that, apart from attack, defense, movement, hitpoint values and special abilities, there really isn't much in the way of customizing units and bringing depth to the strategy or the faction itself (without extensive programming). The lowest tier of unit will probably be Mechanized Infantry (Feedback protectors), supported by a variety of vehicle types like Tanks and Artillery. From there, the more mobile TSFs will make up a pretty large selection for each faction and will vary in their Attack/Defense and price but will share the best land unit movement speeds. I'd also like to incorporate air transports and helicopters, but probably no bombers at least in the TDA-verse. I might also increase the hitpoints of TSF units to 2, to better represent the survivability and size of each unit. Since it will be hard to represent otherwise with a single TSF icon, each TSF group should be thought to have least twelve TSFs (i.e a Squadron). A similar idea should be extended to other units as well, except maybe the larger naval units (i.e 1 carrier should probably mean 1 carrier). The existing naval ships TripleA supports will work very well for Muv-Luv adaptation, though I might expand the transport capacity of some units or make specific transports for TSFs. Given the limited stats I can play with, it might be difficult to make faction-specific abilities or stats. Concepts I'd like to mess around with are hero units that are modelled after famous Muv-Luv squadrons, or adding certain abilities to high-end TSFs to give them more of a multi-role ability and make them worth a high cost. Another thing I'd like to do to increase immersion and set this game apart from usual Risk-like games is make each unit named after their real world counterpart rather than have each faction have 'Tank' or 'Bomber' as their generic titles. At least for me, it adds a sense of attachment to the faction and the units themselves. It will be on me however to ensure players aren't confused of what each faction's equivalent unit is (i.e a Rafale is roughly the equivalent of the American's F-22). Depending on how strict the code is, however, this may not be possible without ugly underscores and such. Keep in mind this is all tentative and is basically a wish list of mine for what I would like to include, but as I get into the game some things are bound to be cut down for balance purposes. A lot of these units are going to be deprecated since TSFs are going to perform so well as multi-role units that some of them will literally serve no purpose in a meta-game sense. United States of America Ground Units *Mechanized Infantry (Slow, but good for defense) *M-1 Abrams Armor (Cheap but effective alternative to TSFs for mobile defense) *M-2 Bradley IFV (Used to transport infantry) *M270 MLRS Artillery (Mainly used to buff units together in the same army/territory) *F-16C Fighting Falcon (The most affordable TSF for the US to produce, but also the weakest) *F-15E Strike Eagle (A heavier TSF, designed as an affordable midline craft) *F-18E/F Super Hornet (TSFs with smaller size requirements which means more can be fit on naval transports) *A-6 Intruder (Capable of attaching to submarine and has greater firepower, but is costly and slow) *F-22 Raptor (Pinnacle of American might, most well-rounded unit but is extremely costly) Air Units *C-5 Galaxy (For transporting ground units) *Apache AH-64D (For providing mobile CAS to ground units) Naval Units *Nimitz-class Carrier (Largest transport capacity for TSFs) *Wasp-class Amphibious Assault Ship (Smaller capacity than a carrier but more cost effective) *Los Angeles-class Submarine (Has carrying capacity for one TSA and is capable of moving through enemy naval formations) *Ticonderoga-class Cruiser (A more affordable bombardment unit to a battleship) *Arleigh Burke-class Destroyer (The affordable escort for US naval fleets, major threat to submarines) *Iowa-class Battleship (The most powerful and well armed ship in the fleet, used for bombardment and naval combat) Empire of Japan Ground Units *Mechanized Infantry (Slow, but good for defense) *Type-90 MBT (Cheap but effective alternative to TSFs for mobile defense) *M-2 Bradley IFV (Used to transport infantry) *Type-99 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer (Mainly used to buff units together in the same army/territory) *Type-94 Shiranui (The mainstray TSF of the IJA, it forms the backbone of the Empire's forces) *Type-81 Wadatsumi (The IJM's Tactical Surface Attacker) *Type-00C (A squadron of Type-00Cs, fielded to fill the gaps in any Imperial Army unit) *Type-00F (An elite force of Type-00Cs and 00As, led by a single 00F vassal retainer of the regent houses) *Type-00R (A costly "heroic" unit, a member of the regent houses takes to the field with an elite squadron) Air Units *C-2 Transport (For transporting ground units) *Apache AH-64D (For providing mobile CAS to ground units) Naval Units *Miura-class Carrier (Largest Japanese TSF transport, but costly and less effective than the Nimitz) *Osumi-class TSF Assault Ship (Cheap but slow TSF transport) *Type-81 Submarine (Capable of carrying a single Wadatsumi) *Tsushima-class Gunboat (Cheap bombardment alternative) *Yamagumo-class Destroyer (An affordable escort destroyer, major threat to submarines) *Yamato-class Battleship (A powerful battleship designed to act as a flagship to the fleet) Sixth French Republic Ground Units *Mechanized Infantry (Slow, but good for defense) *AMX-56 Leclerc (Cheap but effective alternative to TSFs for mobile defense) *VAB (Used to transport infantry) *GCT 155mm Self-Propelled Howitzer (Mainly used to buff units together in the same army/territory) *F-5E Tornado ADV (A cheap support TSF gathered from Canadian stockpiles) *Mirage 2000 (The lightweight, affordable 2nd generation TSF to support the Rafale) *FFL Rafale (A squadron of Rafale made up of drafted deserters and foreign refugees) *Dass-Ault Rafale (A squadron of France's 3rd generation TSF, a well balanced close range fighter) *Rafale Dragoons (An elite regiment staffed with some of France's best pilots) Air Units *C-160 Transport (Aged transport craft) *Eurocopter Tiger (Attack aircraft) Naval Units *CdG-class carrier (Medium-size aircraft carrier, roughly equivalent to Japanese Miura) *Rubis-class Submarine (Strictly for naval combat) *DE-class Corvette (Cheap patrol boat that is effective in large numbers) *LF-class Frigate (A midline stat ship that has increased firepower to a corvette) *GL-class Destroyer (Designed to escort ships and hunt subs) Canada Ground Units *Mechanized Infantry (Slow, but good for defense) *Leopard Tank (Cheap but effective alternative to TSFs for mobile defense) *LAV (Used to transport infantry) *M777 Howitzer (Mainly used to buff units together in the same army/territory) *F-5E Tornado ADV (A cheap support TSF that acts as the Canadian mainstray craft) *CF-18 Hornet (A domestic design of the American F-18, acting as the midline Canadian TSF) *Canadian Rafale (Gifted to Canada by France, the Rafale act as the only 3rd Generation TSF added to their arsenal and are given to only elite pilots) *EF-2000 (Members of the now defunct European Union pool their resources and fight under the Canadian banner with their seasoned pilot corps) Air Units *C-17 Transport (For ferrying land units) *Eurocopter Tiger (Attack aircraft) Naval Units *Victoria-class submarine (Exclusively used for naval combat) *Halifax-class frigate (Canada's relatively cheap and effective naval combat vessel) *Iroquois-class destroyer (Used for both anti-submarine and surface bombardment operations) BETA Ground Units *Tank-class (Tank-class, supported by smaller strains, form the backbone of any BETA formation and are very effective at general patrol duties in the areas surrounding the hive) *Laser-class (These act similar to human artillery and are designed to buff the army units they are attached to rather than fight on their own. Separately, they are weak and easy to destroy. Costly to build because of G-element requirements) *Grappler-class (The mainstray unit for BETA formations, often numbering over 60% of the total force, they are fairly resilient and effective against all human units) *Destroyer-class (A heavy BETA capable of moving fast and hitting hard, but is not effective at defending itself against maneuverable units) *Fort-class (Doubling as both a super-heavy BETA attack unit and a transport, the venerable Fort-class ensure BETA dominance in any territory they reach) Naval Units *Carrier-class (Capable of carrying an untold amount of BETA underground and through the water, the Carrier-class is capable of both avoiding human navy ships and single-handedly pulling off an amphibious landing) Special Units *Hive/Reactor (This unit/structure acts as the equivalent to a human factory and both allows for production of BETA units as well as the gathering of resources) *Heavy Laser-class (Unlike their smaller counterparts, these expensive units are used by the BETA to act as an equivalent to human anti-aircraft weaponry and are used in purely defensive formations that are guaranteed to shoot down any human aircraft that attempt to pass through BETA territory) Research There is research involved, but since its a board game its based on dice rolls and chance which isn't really what I would like. I might turn it off altogether if possible, but I would also like to lock high-tier units behind some research or material barriers (Like the F-22 & Type-00), but I'm not too sure about that. It might be better to just make the barrier of building those be through a higher manufacturing cost. This is probably one of the last things I'll figure out so I'm not too worried about it for now. Future Scenarios Depending on how well this goes and how fun it is, I might try to build other scenarios as I gain experience with the engine. For now it's fairly unlikely I'll attempt a whole world scenario given it would take a lot of time making an original map and balancing humans and BETA over such a large campaign. I might eventually do it, but not before I get through a few of these others first. I'm optimistic that given the relative simplicity of the engine as I work more on it I will be hasten the time it takes to complete each scenario since most of the base rules will remain the same. Anyway, here is the list: *Schwarzemarken (A strictly Europe map with East Germany & West Germany as playable factions, starting in probably shortly after Palaigolos. I might group together the nations into the EESA & NATO/UN for simplicity) *Lunar War (This one would literally be Faraway Dawn incarnate in the fact it would be hell to play as the humans vs BETA; barely any resources and shitty units in comparison to the BETA.) *BETA invasion of Japan in 1998 would be interesting since it would entirely be focused on the island of Japan with the game territories dividing up the provinces and prefectures. *A "custom" scenario so to speak where, if I ever make a world version, I would have one with BETA that starts in 1973 but I would also have one that starts sometime in the 2000s where the BETA have been eradicated. It would be strictly a human conflict that the US envisioned in the 1980's where TSFs and troops are used to fight over the remaining resources of the superpowers. *Another custom scenario, this one focused on another Alt-verse I created a while back in my spare time where the BETA landed with basically no warning in the 60's-70's since World War 2 was still going on, and with both the Axis and the Allies having already developed TSFs. BETA landers would hit in Africa and North America for more political intrigue as the Axis is actually given some breathing space unlike the EU was. *I'd also like to do a scenario that focuses on the BETA's advance into China and Korea as a prelude to the invasion of Japan, with the PRC, Taiwan, North & South Korea, and potentially Japan as human factions. *Lastly, I really want to get the Russians involved somewhere so either a scenario where players fight the BETA tooth & nail across Eurasia in the aftermath of Operation Palaigolos or one set in 2001 with Alaska and Kamchatka as your only territory and the goal is to push past the Evensk hive and capture Verkhoyansk Hive. That's all I can think of for now, but I might add other stuff later if I can think of it. Category:Blog posts